The Hidden

by Tobias Hill

Book Overview

"An unusual, exhilarating hybrid of high-stakes, propulsive narrative; erudite, yet breezy summations of specialized historical data; and strikingly evocative language." -- New York Times Book Review

From PEN/Macmillan award-winning novelist and poet Tobias Hill, a thrilling novel of astonishing grace and power that explores the secrets we keep, the ties that bind us, and the true cost of fulfilling our desires.

In...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061768251
• ISBN13: 9780061768255
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Secrets

Like this intriguing novel itself, the title has many layers of meaning. The most obvious is the setting. The book mainly takes place during an archaeological dig in the ruins of ancient Sparta, in Southern Greece. Under the direction of an earnest American archaeologist, an international group of youngish workers (from America, Germany, Japan, Georgia, and Britain, together with some Greeks) work long hours to uncover relics of that ancient civilization that was at one time the dominant military power in Greece. No priceless artifacts are expected; this is a picture to be pieced together from broken potsherds and fragments of bone. Another layer refers to ancient Spartan society -- a culture that not only left little evidence of its achievements but actually seems to have enshrined secrecy as a virtue. This background is discussed in chapters throughout the novel entitled "Notes Towards a Thesis," written by the protagonist, Ben Mercer, a graduate student of archaeology at Oxford who volunteers for the dig when it is already in progress. Hill is brilliant at setting out the facts and theories of classical history in a way that is anything but dry. The moment you open the book, you know you are in the presence of real intelligence, whether Ben's or the author's or both. And these historical interludes turn out to be essential underpinnings of the themes of the novel. When Ben arrives at the dig, the five other non-Greek workers seem to have formed a clique that excludes him. One of them, a German named Eberhard, knew Ben slightly from Oxford, but now he seems disdainful and remote. Jason, the only other Englishman, offers apparent friendship that turns to antagonism. Ben, who is eager to be accepted, finds himself attracted to one of the group, a Japanese woman named Natsuko, but that relationship too seems based as much on mystery as revelation. He soon suspects that the members of this clique are linked by secrets of their own, from which he will always be excluded. But then Ben has secrets himself. He comes to Greece originally to recover from the loss of his wife and child in a divorce which, though relatively amicable, leaves him yearning. As time goes on, we gradually learn more about the reasons for this divorce, and of a secret violence hidden within Ben himself. The most disturbing thing is that he is a sympathetic character and clearly no monster, and yet the author seems to imply that even normal people like ourselves can carry the monstrous in us. "The Hidden" finally refers to a group of young men in ancient Sparta who apparently served as a kind of vigilante force outside the normal law. Whether historically based or not, the idea turns out to have considerable thematic importance as Hill gradually adds the mechanisms of a thriller to fill out his psychological study, and take it to places of particular relevance to our post-9/11 world. One thing THE HIDDEN does NOT do is draw spurious connections between the ancient world and

Not your basic thriller

I think this book suffers a bit from being presented as a thriller, because that label suggests the action-heavy plot and obvious themes of airport entertainment. I'd compare it more to Donna Tartt's The Secret History. It's a sort of metaphysical suspense story where you have to think a bit about the the main character and his flaws and why he's attracted to certain people and ideas. What's the relationship between the group at the archeological dig, the ancient Spartans and the reason for Ben's divorce? It's not glaring right in your face. This is called a metaphor, something you find in art. You don't expect it in a Tom Clancy novel, and if a Clancy thriller all you're really equipped to read, you won't get it. So I think the kind of person whose reading comprehension stops at the airport thriller level should stay away. You will think that the book is boring and that nothing happens. That said, readers who know how to read below the simple surface level and who tend to read more literary books, will find a lot more suspense and plot in this book than they're used to. I think those readers -- the kind of people who like Ian McEwan novels, for example, will appreciate how marvelous "The Hidden" is.

exciting thriller

In Metamorphosis, Greece in 2004 former Oxford student Ben Mercer feels his life is over as his marriage is dead and he works at a dead end meat grill restaurant with no future beyond serving diners since his Ancient Sparta thesis is dead just not interred yet. He admires the courage of the visiting five archeologists who fearlessly dig for what they want while he mopes and serves food. One of his heroes who he knew in England, Oxford Professor Eberhard Saurer tells Ben he is going on an excavation in Laconia where they hope to uncover Spartan ruins; when Ben pleads to join him, Eberhard just leaves. Unable to resist, Ben follows Eberhard to Laconia called Lacedaemonia by the ancient Spartans who left little behind except mystery as to how so few controlled so many "Helot" slaves. Eberhard and his colleagues (Jason, Natsuko, Eleshchen and Max) perform one of the ancient Spartan rituals of the death hunt while emitting a superiority cockiness that Ben admires and would like to emulate if he was not so afraid. He soon learns of the Crypteia Hidden Ones' fanaticism killing the helots like hunters stalking game and fears he may be the modern day game of the predatory fearsome five. This is an exciting thriller that looks deeply into the amoral behavior of terrorists using an ethical cloak to defend their murderous beliefs. By bringing Sparta into focus in terms of terrorizing their neighbors through mechanisms like the Hidden hunt of the Helot and comparing this group to modern times using the five archeologists, Tobias Hill provides a profound look at a predator's mindset, in the past and present. Although the flashbacks into Ben's past enhance understanding of him, that track distracts from the bigger theme of how a stalker rationalizes in secret to him or her self the kill of the innocent. Harriet Klausner